SERIES
Advent: Into His Marvelous Light
2016-12-11T11:00:00-06:00
21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.
29 And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30 but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” 31 And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.
48:1 After this, Joseph was told, “Behold, your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2 And it was told to Jacob, “Your son Joseph has come to you.” Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed. 3 And Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4 and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.’ 5 And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. 6 And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. 7 As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).”
8 When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, “Who are these?” 9 Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” And he said, “Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.” 10 Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. 11 And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see your face; and behold, God has let me see your offspring also.” 12 Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13 And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near him. 14 And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands (for Manasseh was the firstborn). 15 And he blessed Joseph and said,
“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,
16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys;
and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac;
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright (c)2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. http://www.esv.org
How do we relate to the apparent distance between God’s lavish promises and our inability to understand them? In Genesis 15, that is Abram’s problem. God has made astounding promises to him, but Abram cannot fathom how the Lord could possibly fulfill these promises. The circumstances may be different, but the same tension exists in our lives. We're tempted to think that we must close the gap and that we are “on the hook” to deliver the performance that makes God’s promises a reality. But the story of Genesis 15 and the story of Scripture invite us to shift our gaze from what we must do to what God has done.
As Abram wrestles with lacking an heir, the Lord invites him to look up and number the stars. The Lord gives Abram a star-counting task that no person could complete, and then promises that the number of his offspring will be like the number of stars. Abram can neither count the stars nor have a child in his old age. All he can do is trust that the Lord will be faithful to His word. And so we read that Abram “believed the Lord, and He counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen 15:6).
When we struggle to understand God’s promises, He doesn’t “walk them back”. No, God invites us to look up and realize that the promises are even more amazing than we thought. And when we wonder how we can know that God will deliver on these promises, He amazes us yet again. The covenant-cutting ceremony in Genesis 15 is a picture of the Lord's faithfulness to do everything necessary to keep His promises. The Lord, represented by a flaming torch, passes through the gauntlet of animal carcasses. Meanwhile, Abram is asleep. The Lord is essentially saying, “May what happened to these carcasses happen to Me if I don’t keep My promise...and if you don’t keep your promise.” The Lord puts Himself on the hook and promises to close the gap between His promises and our ability to grasp them.
As Abram slept, the Lord’s plans to redeem the world were unfolding. And as most of the world slept, the Lord Himself entered the world as a baby. Christmas means that the Lord has come to close the gap, to put Himself on the hook (and eventually on a cross) for His people’s salvation. The baby in the manger is the one who came to keep God’s covenant and to pay the price for those who could not. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we enjoy all the blessings of being God's covenant people, the children of Abraham, the children of God. So if we feel “on the hook” to deliver the perfect Christmas, we have missed the glorious news of Christmas. The Light has come to keep the covenant and break the curse. All of God's promises are "yes" and "amen" in Jesus Christ. If we believe that, it should be a very merry Christmas indeed.